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Get your stores of Christmas food and drink organised now, and the run up to Christmas will go a whole lot more smoothly. With party food, tipples, festive meals including the big one, plus the essential treats considered you’ll be ready for all-comers.
We’ve found the best selection of seasonal food and drink at Sainsbury’s we think you’ll want to know about – including offerings that have triumphed under expert scrutiny in seasonal taste tests.
Don’t want to miss out? Just scroll down for choices you’ll love.
Like the idea of a different taste on 25th December? Sainsbury’s Gressingham whole duck (opens in new tab) is easy to cook in its film bag, which is designed to retain the juices and gamey flavour. Gressingham Duck, btw, is a cross of the Mallard and Pekin duck and its a chefs’ favourite.
If pigs in blankets are a must-have for your Christmas day table, Sainsbury’s taste the difference pork sausage and bacon wraps (opens in new tab) are worth snapping up. The Good Housekeeping Institute made them winners in the pigs in blankets category of its festive testing remarking on ‘herby sage notes, balanced seasoning and succulent meat’. All the pork is British.
Don’t forget the gravy. And with a win in the gravy category of the BBC Good Food Christmas taste awards, what better version to pick up than Sainsbury’s taste the difference Christmas gravy (opens in new tab)? ‘Clean poultry flavour, pleasant vegetal base and fairly thick yet pourable consistency’, said the experts. We call that just right.
We do love a cheesecake and the Sainsbury’s Santa’s raspberry belly cheesecake (opens in new tab) means we can indulge our taste for it and declare it appropriate for the season. It has a digestive biscuit crumb base and a raspberry glaze, then it’s finished with a chocolate sponge, chocolate sauce and an edible decoration. Ho, ho, ho.
Wreath-inspired dishes both sweet and savoury aren’t hard to track down for Christmas 2019. We like the Sainsbury’s taste the difference raspberry and lemon wreath (opens in new tab) which is a meringue version of this festive shape. It’s topped with whipped cream, raspberries, of course, and a Belgian white chocolate ganache and white chocolate shavings.
Sainsbury’s taste the difference take a bao selection (opens in new tab) (geddit?) are vegan, but we think everyone will love them. The bao buns come with three fillings: massaman vegetable curry, crunchy water chestnut and chive, and mixed mushrooms in aromatic char sui marinade, so if you could just bring that plate round again...
OK, we know we’ve already shown you a fabulously festive cheesecake from Sainsbury’s, but we can’t resist sharing this cute pud for your party guests. Sainsbury’s clementine and prosecco Christmas tree cheesecake (opens in new tab) looks amazing and, with its citrus and sparkling wine flavours, it tastes of Christmas, too.
Acclaimed by The Observer as ‘a sweetly enticing, brambly easy-drinking party-starter’ Sainsbury’s Porta 6 Vinho Regional Lisboa (opens in new tab) is just £6.50 a bottle right now, and if you stock up for your festive get-together, you can save 25% on any six or more bottles. We like the label, too.
Prosecco’s become the go-to alternative to Champagne, but don’t forget the other sparkling wines, including Sainsbury’s Crémant de Loire (opens in new tab). It’s made in the same way as Champagne, and is rich but with apple freshness. It’ll pair with shellfish, but why not simply toast the new year with it?
Sarah is a freelance journalist and editor writing for websites, national newspapers, and magazines. She’s spent most of her journalistic career specialising in homes – long enough to see fridges become smart, decorating fashions embrace both minimalism and maximalism, and interiors that blur the indoor/outdoor link become a must-have. She loves testing the latest home appliances, revealing the trends in furnishings and fittings for every room, and investigating the benefits, costs and practicalities of home improvement. It's no big surprise that she likes to put what she writes about into practice, and is a serial house revamper. For Realhomes.com, Sarah reviews coffee machines and vacuum cleaners, taking them through their paces at home to give us an honest, real life review and comparison of every model.